Frank Lampard is delighted Conor Coady and James Tarkowski have given Everton some “b******s”.
Coady and Tarkowski have made a real impact at Goodison Park and Everton are seven games unbeaten and boast the best defence in the Premier League with just seven goals conceded in the competition so far this season.
Lampard savaged his side following their pathetic FA Cup loss to Crystal Palace in March when he accused them of lacking “b******s”. He made signing players with the right character a key part of his summer recruitment process and feels the two centre-backs have big personalities which has made the difference.
“I spoke last year about culture and approaching games, did we have the confidence?” said the Blues boss. “We wanted to address it and it’s definitely somewhere where we have progressed. It was a big part of our recruitment to bring in good people as well as good players. I had an instinct about Conor just from listening to him speak.
"When we played Wolves during lockdown his voice was booming all around the stadium. I was thinking at the time, ‘I wish we had one of those’.
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“Their personality brings the best out of others and ups the standards in training. That’s a big deal for me - people with big personality.
"You can control parts of the changing room and training pitch, but other responsibilities have to be down to the players and those two naturally take it on.” Everton’s renaissance will be tested by Manchester United at Goodison Park tomorrow night and Lampard insists his side have much room for improvement.
“Yeah, I analysed Saturday’s game against Southampton and it’s like a double-edged sword, the good and the bad,” he said. “We won the game, showed some resilience and came back from 1-0. But there were technical parts of it I know we can be better on.
"It’s important the players see that because in other games in the Premier League, if our structure is not great, we will get punished. The story changes very quickly in football, from the positive to the negative, so I’m not under any illusions that we are where we want to be, it’s just a process.
"We need to be the last ones getting overly excited. Building confidence is a great thing. The players need to feel that. But there’s a fine line between confidence and complacency. It’s always a killer in elite sport and we have to guard against it.”
